Misconceptions
by Jessibell-kun
Summary: WARNING: SPOILERS! This fanfic is set just before Mortal Coil. My own rendition of what my imagination would have liked to have happened when Valkyrie finds out her true name and ends up telling Skulduggery. Whatever happens during and past Mortal Coil is irrelevant to this story. Pairings depend on how my mind wants this story to go.
1. Chapter 1 - Darquesse

**Set just before Mortal Coil. My own rendition of what my imagination would have liked to have happened when Valkyrie tells Skulduggery she has found out her true name. Whatever happens during and past Mortal Coil is irrelevant to this story. Please enjoy :)**

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Valkyrie paced her bedroom, her fingers entwined in themselves. Her mind was racing after her recent discovery. She had always felt this power in her, bubbling just beneath the surface. But never before had she even thought that Darquesse might be _her_. She stopped, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She had to start thinking clearly about how to approach telling Skulduggery. He was her best friend and partner, there was no way that she could keep a secret like this from him. Especially if it meant she would eventually end up _killing her own parents_. She shook her head and looked out the window. It was still pretty dark outside. She walked over to her bedside table and looked at her phone's lock screen. 5:14 am. She wondered if it would be too late to call him. He never slept, right? She picked up her phone hesitantly, chewing her bottom lip with uncertainty. She didn't know how he was going to react; would he be angry? Upset? Would he say anything at all? What could you say to something like that? Valkyrie didn't know what she would say herself, how could she expect someone else to know what to say?

She fell backward onto her bed and let out a small whimper. It was pathetic, but she didn't know what to do. She wanted to call him and just tell him. Maybe hang up afterward. She knew she wouldn't do that though, not to Skulduggery. He would appear outside her room instantly anyway. There'd be no escaping the confrontation. Her bottom lip trembled slightly, she felt like crying. She didn't though, not with this. She didn't want to think herself as weak. She sat up in her bed, her face set in a scowl as she dialed into her phone. After the first ring, a bemused and tired Fletcher appeared in her room. He was about to blurt out some annoyed and snarky comment when he saw her scowling on her bed, so he closed his mouth and frowned, moving to sit next to her.

"Val..?" He poked gently. She let out a sigh and looked at him.

"Fletcher." She replied simply. She leaned to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Not questioning it, he raised his hand to her head to stroke her hair soothingly. He didn't know what was troubling her, and she'd never called him at this time before. Whatever it is it must be keeping her from sleeping. After a few minutes of silence, Fletcher let out a snicker. Valkyrie lifted her head and looked at him. "What are you laughing at?" She whispered.

Fletcher flashed her a cheeky grin, "I'm in your room. At night. I'm on your bed." He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she shook her head, allowing herself a small smile. "Yeah, I guess you are. This isn't a booty call though, sorry to disappoint." However, despite her words, she leaned in and kissed him, wiping his grin off his lips. He responded almost immediately, a hand snaking around to the lower of her back. They kissed for a good few minutes in silence, and Valkyrie felt herself become less tense. She didn't mean to use Fletcher like this, but there was no way she could have thought clearly about telling Skulduggery with her mind going nuts about it. She let out a small sigh and pulled back, much to Fletcher's chagrin. His eyes studied her as she looked back down at her phone with a troubled gaze.

"Are you alright, Val?" He asked quietly, his arm around her shoulder. Valkyrie shrugged gently, almost dislodging his arm, but he stayed. She didn't say anything and just stared at her phone. Her gaze lifted and looked at the doll, the one that whispered to her the reason she was fretting right now. It sat there, doing nothing. No more whispers were coming from it anymore. For that, at least, she was grateful. It creeped her out to no ends. Perhaps she would put it out of sight.

"Fletcher," she finally said quietly, "You can go home now." Fletcher looked at her, slightly offended. But when she looked at him with her tired eyes, he thought to himself that she suddenly looked a lot older than what she was. Instead of protesting, he planted a small kiss on her forehead and let go, vanishing from her room.

Laying back into bed, she curled up, hugging her phone close to her chest. She closed her eyes shut and tried to get to sleep.

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Valkyrie woke up two hours later to a light tapping on her window. She opened her eyes slowly and glared in its general direction. Outside was Skulduggery sitting on her windowsill. He was tapping a gloved, bony finger on her window repeatedly. He knew she was awake, but he kept tapping. Grumbling something about deboning a skeleton, Valkyrie threw off her covers and dragged her feet over to the window. Skulduggery clambered in after she opened it for him and stood there, looking at her. She was still in her black outfit tailored by Ghastly, and the bags under her eyes were very prominent.

"You look awful," he said. Valkyrie's already grumpy expression turned grumpier as she grabbed her phone. Tucking it into her pocket she looked back at Skulduggery, her eyes catching sight of the doll in the process. She was suddenly nervous again. "How did you sleep?" Skulduggery asked after a moment of nothing being said between them. Valkyrie shrugged, not replying. He nodded and gestured towards the window. "You had a visitor last night, didn't you?"

"No."

"Yes, you did. I can tell."

"How?"

Skulduggery pointed to her bed. "Because the person who was sitting right there called me ten minutes ago to tell me you were upset." Valkyrie looked away and cursed under her breath. _Damn that Fletcher_.

"So what?" She retorted, "I'm old enough to decide who comes to my room." Skulduggery walked over to her bed, smoothed out the duvet and sat down at the end of it. Almost automatically, Valkyrie followed and sat next to her pillow facing him. "Are you going to lecture me about boys?"

Skulduggery shook his head, "No. Every word I say is an enlightenment, not a lecture. I am very wise. You should take into account what I tell you." He straightened his tie and looked up at her. "So, are you going to tell me what is troubling you?" Valkyrie stared at him, her heart beginning to race again. She should just blurt it out, get it out there and over with. _Skulduggery, I am Darquesse._ Simple. That's all she had to say. Her mouth felt dry as she looked at the doll behind her. She reached up and placed it on her lap as if willing it to tell him for her. Skulduggery sat there silently and waited for her to talk, his head tilted to the side as soon as she touched the doll.

"I had a nightmare last night," She finally said in a quiet voice. She took the arm of the doll in her hand as a distraction. It felt cold and smooth against her skin. "And when I woke up, I heard whispers from this... thing. It told me what I had dreamt of - or rather, what I was remembering in my sleep." Her hand tightened around the arm. "I know my true name, Skulduggery."

"The book, you saw your name in there?" He asked slowly. She nodded, "Right before it was destroyed. I didn't remember it until now." She took a deep breath and looked up at him. She tried to hide the fear in her eyes, but she couldn't help it. She was scared. And a part of her knew that the fear was derived from the fact that someone who knew her well enough to take her out with the least amount of effort was sitting on her bed right in front of her. If she proved to be the looming threat of mass destruction that everyone had been prophesizing, she wouldn't know what to expect of him. Her forehead furrowed as she tried to push those thoughts to the side. He wouldn't kill her. Though, in some way, she did want him to.

"I'm Darquesse," she blurted, her own body going stock still. She stared down at the doll with wide eyes in panic, waiting for him to react. But he didn't react. He said nothing. He did nothing. A silence stretched between the two, a silence that she could neither depict as tense or threatening. A shiver ran down her spine, her palms against the doll becoming sweaty.

Skulduggery moved his hand towards her suddenly and she flinched. He stopped, looking at her, holding his head in a way that suggests he was offended. Slowly, his hand resumed its course and rested on the doll she was holding. Gently, he took it from her and placed it on the bed between them. "You are Darquesse." Valkyrie nodded. Hearing him say it in his smooth voice calmed her. It didn't sound as bad when he said it. He stood, brushing off his jacket and nodded to himself. "Well then. We'd best get your name sealed."

Valkyrie frowned, looking up at him in confusion. He looked down at her, "The Bentley is outside." He exited her room through the window and then he was gone. She stared at the open window for a moment, her mind going blank. That was it? She jumped off her bed, pushing aside her confusion and let irritation take its place. That was _it_? Shaking her head, she let herself drop from her window, pushing the air beneath her to make her landing gentle. She walked over to the Bentley and got in, not saying a word. Skulduggery glanced once at her before starting the car and driving off.

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 **Hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter. It was a struggle to try and get the characters to react the way I thought would be appropriate. Please leave a review! I would love to see your feedback.**


	2. Chapter 2 - Lights

A month had passed since Valkyrie had realized she was Darquesse and a month since she had told Skulduggery. She had since sealed the name so that she could not be controlled by it, with the help of Kenspeckle. It was a long and tedious task, but she felt stronger now. She didn't tell Kenspeckle what her name was. She didn't want another reaction like Skulduggery's. He frustrated her so much. Neither of them had said a word about it since the sealing, and it had been a constant niggling annoyance in the back of her head ever since. She would have preferred it if he had gotten mad, violent, upset - anything that wasn't anything. She constantly felt tense around him, as if he was going to lash out at her at any moment. Ever since she had rescued him from the Faceless Ones, she could never properly predict his actions.

They were at his house and she was sitting cross-legged in the biggest living room on the sofa. He was elsewhere on the phone, and she could hear his distant and muffled voice from the other room. The Sanctuary had been relocated and Skulduggery was constantly being contacted for new cases after an increasing outbreak of crime had occurred since the Sanctuary's downfall. People were taking this opportunity to cause mayhem where they see fit to see if they could get away with it. They never did, though. Not with Valkyrie and Skulduggery on their cases.

She smiled a little at the thought. They were the threat that was keeping people from doing bad things. That's the way she liked it. Her smile turned into a frown. She couldn't do that if people found out she was Darquesse. Darquesse was the bad guy, the one they wanted to stop. She would cause mass destruction and kill anyone in her path. Even her own parents. Valkyrie paled at the thought just as Skulduggery walked in. She didn't notice him yet. He closed his phone quietly and looked at her paling face.

It was unclear to him what was going through her head. If he had to guess, it would possibly be the fact that she is thought to be the one who would end the world. It would most certainly take up a lot of Skulduggery's thought process if he had discovered such a thing. He approached her from behind the sofa quietly, resting two hands on her shoulders in a gentle manner. She jolted slightly in fright. He took a mental note that she was still as tense as she had been the day she told him. A whole month now and he couldn't shake off the feeling that she no longer felt comfortable in his presence. _Today,_ he decided, _we will talk._

Valkyrie turned her head sharply when his bony hands rested on her shoulders. She frowned up at him. "What are you doing, scaring me like that? I could have attacked you."

He nodded, looking down at her. "Yes, you could have. And that's the issue, Valkyrie. You are tense. You feel unsafe in this house. Why is that?" Valkyrie could not help but detect the traces of hurt in his question. Her frown deepened and she looked away.

"Maybe it's the fact that you have said nothing to me about my real name. I have no idea what's going on in your head," she let out a deep sigh. "It's unnerving. I feel like I can't relax in case you suddenly decide to get rid of the threat now that you know who it is. I am Darquesse, I'm going to bring this world to an end in fire and mayhem, I'm going to eradicate all life as we know it. We've seen the future, Skulduggery. So say something about it. What are you thinking? Please, I'd rather you tell me the things I don't want to hear than tell me nothing at all."

Skulduggery moved with deliberate slowness around the sofa to sit next to her. With one leg propped up on the cushions and the other over the edge with his foot on the floor, he faced her. He sat rather close. She subconsciously held her breath. "Valkyrie," he started and she glanced at him. "You are my partner. My friend. You should know by now that I am not going to hurt you." He put a hand on her knee. "You should know that I would rather see this through and figure out ways to change your future than have you eliminated." He pulled her gently into a hug as she remained quiet. She let out the breath she didn't know she was holding and instantly relaxed into him. The feeling of safety washed over her in a wave of relief. "You were very brave to tell me, Valkyrie. I admire that."

Valkyrie smiled sadly. "I'm going to kill my own parents," she whispered into his exquisitely tailored suit. "I'm going to kill them and feel nothing whilst doing it."

"What we saw was only a possibility. We can change your future - it does not have to be that way," Skulduggery said, patting her on the back. She sat up and looked up at his eyeless sockets.

"If I become a problem, you have to stop me." She said flatly, her expression serious.

"You're always a problem."

"No I'm not, you're the bad influence."

"I am an amazing influence, if not the best. I have a vast vocabulary, many wonderful suits, a Bentley... The list could go on."

Valkyrie closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head. "I want to hit you so hard right now."

"See? A problem."

Valkyrie lunged at him and smacked his shoulder with her palm. 

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Later that day, after Valkyrie had administrated suitable beatings to Skulduggery, they were sitting in the Bentley outside a run down building that hadn't been used for anything other than a hide-out for sketchy teenage mortals in quite a few years. It had recently been newly boarded up to keep out unwanted drunks and homeless, however, there had been signs of recent activity. Reports of bright flashing lights at different intervals throughout the night may have indicated a simple scenario of people breaking in and having torches with them, however, the reports go on to detail a distinct sound of strangled screaming along with the flashes. This piqued Skulduggery's interest and now they were waiting for nightfall.

Valkyrie had the chair leaned back and was lying on her side with her coat on top of her as a make-shift blanket. It was getting colder every night and she did NOT appreciate a stake-out in this weather. Skulduggery, of course, was not affected by this in any way as he sat there, softly humming to himself.

"I hate you."

Skulduggery looked down at her, his head tilted. "That was unexpected."

"You're not even cold, are you?"

"That depends on what you mean by cold. If I had a heart I would consider myself warm-blooded. I am a very nice person, you see."

"That's not what I meant. I meant cold as in 'the wind is cold' cold."

"Ah, that. Then no. I am perfectly fine."

"I knew it," Valkyrie grumbled, pulling her coat tighter around her shoulders. She closed her eyes for a moment before she heard a soft _click_ and then a whirring noise. A wave of warm air wafted over her and she frowned, opening her eyes again. "What is that?"

"I do believe it is air conditioning."

"You're telling me I've been sat here, freezing cold, and you've only JUST thought that it would be nice to turn on the air conditioning? I didn't even know you _had_ air conditioning in this car."

"Don't be silly, this car has everything."

She glared at him and he shrugged. "You could have asked."

"I hate you."

"Yes... you've made it a point to tell me that already."

Valkyrie went back to grumbling, though she was grateful for the heat. She wasn't shivering anymore. Oh, how that skeleton annoyed her. She soon drifted off into a warm sleep and was awoken an hour later by Skulduggery gently nudging her. "Wake up, look."

She sat up, instantly clearing her eyes to focus on the entrance of the building. A sequence of bright lights flashed behind the boarded windows and through the gaps. And, as predicted, strangled screams accompanied them. They got out the car and approached the building, looking up at the windows. Skulduggery wrapped an arm around her waist and they lifted into the air, hovering outside one of the windows. He pushed at the air with his free hand and the boards blasted open as they vaulted inside.

"Oh," he said.

Before them was quite the scene. There were bean bags everywhere, covering almost all of the floor. And sat in the middle was a small group of teenagers, looking absolutely terrified. All of them had glowing hands and were sitting in a circle.

"Uhm. What is going on here?" Valkyrie asked, not sure what to make of it. One of the teenagers, a young boy, jumped to his feet and pointed his glowing hands at her.

"Nothing! Nothing is going on!"

Skulduggery holstered his gun and pointed it at the boy. "Please, lower your hands unless you'd like to see a gaping hole in them."

The boy hesitated and dropped his hands. "We're just telling stories. Nothing is going on."

"Stories?" Valkyrie frowned. She looked down at the others for a moment. "Then what was all the screaming?"

"That was me," a young girl said, raising her hand. "It's... for the effect, you know? Scary stories, people dying and wailing screams."

"She's quite good at it," another said. The group all mumbled in agreement.

Skulduggery lowered his gun before speaking, "I see you all wield magic. What kind?"

"We're adepts. At least that's what we were told. We haven't hurt anyone, I swear!" The standing boy said in a hurry.

Skulduggery nodded and looked at Valkyrie, who shrugged and said, "Okay, fine. But we're going to have to insist on you stopping the screaming. And keep the flashing to a minimal. You're attracting all kinds of unwanted attention."

The group mumbled again, nodding their heads. "We will, we promise. Sorry."

Back in the Bentley, Valkyrie let out a laugh. "That was not what I was expecting."

"Well, not everyone causes trouble like you do, Valkyrie. They were just friends having a get together."

"I don't have any get togethers to make trouble in."

"You don't have any friends, either."

She hit him again. 

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**Thank you for your reviews!**


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